Brigitte Fontaine - Brigitte Fontaine Est...Folle
Brigitte Fontaine - Brigitte Fontaine Est...Folle (1968)
This is Brigitte Fontaine's third LP, released in early 1968. Unlike what was to follow with Comme à la radio and afterwards, this is a fully orchestrated chanson record; not too far removed from Serge Gainsbourg, really. (She even collaborates with Jean-Claude Vannier here.) Indeed, Brigitte Fontaine is every bit as perverse as Gainsbourg and this record has it to the fore. I personally think that Brigitte Fontaine is actually a better lyricist than Gainsbourg -- wittier and more depth. And there's no doubt that she took her music much further than Gainsbourg ever dared to.
None of the experimental tendencies that were to come in 1969 are yet in place, but this remains a beautifully written and arranged album very much rooted in the more adventurous wing of 1960s chanson. After the events of May 1968, Fontaine and Jacques Higelin (who co-wrote two songs here) would be the only major chanson figures to take their lives and music toward a militant and radical direction -- and to see it all the way through.
Written by Brigitte Fontaine/Jean-Claude Vannier (track 1)
Brigitte Fontaine/Olivier Bloch-Lainé (tracks 2-5,7-9)
Brigitte Fontaine/Alain Clavie (track 6)
Brigitte Fontaine/Jacques Higelin (tracks 10 and 11)
Arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier
Produced by Pierre Barouh
Recorded by René Ameline
Original LP (Saravah SH 10001) released 1968
1. Il Pleut 2:35
2. Le Beau Cancer 2:01
3. Il Se Passe Des Choses 3:37
4. Une Fois Mais Pas Deux 2:47
5. L'homme Objet 1:34
6. Eternelle 2:27
7. Blanche Neige 3:29
8. Comme Rimbaud 1:56
9. Dommage Que Tu Sois Mort 2:25
10. Je Suis Inadaptee 2:43
11. Cet Enfant Que Je T'avais Fait 4:27
Brigitte Fontaine - Comme A La Radio (1970)
Brigitte Fontaine - Comme A La Radio (1970)
Of all the strange records this French vanguard pop chanteuse ever recorded, this 1971 collaboration between the teams of Brigitte Fontaine and her songwriting partner Areski and the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- who were beginning to think about returning to the United States after a two-year stay -- is the strangest and easily most satisfying. While Fontaine's records could be beguiling with their innovation, they occasionally faltered by erring on the side of gimmickry and cuteness. Here, the Art Ensemble provide the perfect mysterious and ethereal backdrop for her vocal explorations. Featuring the entire Art Ensemble of that time period and including fellow Chicago AACM member Leo Smith on second trumpet, Fontaine and Areski stretched the very notion of what pop had been and could be. With strangely charted arrangements and mixing (percussion was in the foreground and horns were muted in the background, squeezed until they sounded like snake-charming flutes), the ten tracks here defy any and all conventions and result in the most provocative popular recording of 1971 -- and that's saying something. For their part, the Art Ensemble hadn't played music this straight since before leaving Chicago, with long, drooping ballad lines contrasted with sharp Eastern figures and North African rhythmic figures built in. The finest example of how well this works, and how seductively weird it all is, is on the two-part "Tanka." Here, Malachi Favors' bass and Areski's percussion meet everything from bouzoukis to clarinets to muted trumpets to sopranino saxophones, courtesy of Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Smith, and Lester Bowie, who play in tandem, using striated harmonies and modal intervals in order to stretch the notion of time and space under Fontaine's vocals. The effect is eerie, chilling, and hauntingly beguiling, and sets the tone for an entire album that runs all over the stylistic map while not adhering to anything but its own strange muse. This is remarkable stuff from a very adventurous time when virtually anything was possible. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
1. Comme a la Radio 8:03
2. Tanka II 2:04
3. Le Brouillard 3:24
4. J'ai 26 ans 3:04
5. L'Ete L'Ete 3:56
6. Encore 1:35
7. Leo 3:51
8. Les Petits Chevaux 0:43
9. Tanka I 1:46
10. Lettre a Monsieur le Chef de Gare de la Tour Carol 6:04
11. Le Goudron 4:10
12. Le Noir c'est mieux choisi 5:01